Comment 39 by nykos :
I can certainly understand why Prof. Dawkins would avoid talking about Israel. It's hard enough as it is convincing people to read arguments that God/Allah doesn't exist. (...) Get rid of Allah and the neighbors of Israel will stop being its enemies. On the Jewish side, there are definitely problems to be fixed, but they are minuscule in comparison to the propaganda of hate emanating from the usual understanding of Islam.
I honestly cannot believe that I'm reading such bull crap on richarddawkins.net. What kind of a reasoning is this? Get rid of Jehovah and there would be no reason for Zionism, Israel and occupation of Palestinian territories to exist in the first place!
Arabs were there long before Israel was established. And I'm not only talking about Muslim Arabs here - people tend to forget that there has also been a huge number of Christian Arabs living in those areas.
Furthermore, the Palestinian struggle against the occupiers started with the PLO which, in the beginning, had a quite secular character inspired by Nasser's socialism. It was actually Israel which at a certain point began to support (and strengthen) Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO. Add up the American support for international wahhabism during the Cold War and you will understand the current radical islamization of the Palestinian struggle.
Last but not least, people also tend to forget that, relatively speaking, Judaism has always been far better of under Islamic rule. Check the history books on the Jewish Golden Age and Ottoman hospitality toward Jews during the Inquisitions.
The root of the problem - of all evil, actually - is religion. And it's primarily Islam, since there are a lot of atheists and religious moderates in Israel and their only concern is self-defense and retaliation to attacks, not conquering Judea and Samaria. The fact that Israel leaders ceded Gaza, as well as the whole of their holy lands of Sinai (where Moses had a chat with Yahweh) to Egypt proves that there is at least some religious moderation in Israel.
Are you seriously not aware of the Israeli settlement policy? What moderation are you talking about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6KLFrye9Xk
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/tricky-bibi-1.302053
If Dawkins were to say: "Even though it's not anywhere near a perfect country, I'm on Israel's side because it doesn't persecute non-believers and hang gay people the way neighboring Muslim states do" (and I strongly suspect it's what he believes deep down inside), Muslims and moral relativists wouldn't even touch his books, let alone read them.
Oh boy...
"Foreigners landing in Israel might ask themselves what country they're in: Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia? In any case, it's not the liberal, secular and enlightened society it purports to be. Thieves' hands do not have to be hacked off or women's faces covered to be a religious country." http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-state-governed-by-religious-law-1.273941